The College of Science and Technology, the Department of Chemistry and Temple women’s basketball partnered for Buckets and Beakers, a day of chemistry and basketball for more than thirty 5th and 6th grade students from the Paul L. Dunbar School located adjacent to Main Campus.

With funding from CST’s Diversity Innovation Initiative Fund, Buckets and Beakers helped to spotlight chemistry for students from groups that are often underrepresented in STEM-related fields.

“Our main goal for the first iteration of Buckets and Beakers was to get young students excited about science,” said chemistry graduate student Zac O’Dell, one of 8 students from Professor Katherine Willet’s chemistry lab who participated in the event.

The morning session in Beury Hall featured interactive sessions on fireworks colors, chemiluminescence, color precipitation reactions, pH rainbow with dry ice and polymer chemistry, also known as ‘slime’ chemistry. After lunch, the students went to McGonigle Hall for a tour and a shootaround with the women’s basketball team. The day ended with a snack of liquid nitrogen ice cream.

“A lot of credit and a huge thank you goes to the chemistry graduate students that prepped some really fun demos for the students,” O’Dell said, “but the real stars of the show were the members and staff of the women’s basketball team. Moving forward, we hope to build on this basketball-chemistry collaboration, and keep looking for creative ways to make science fun for young students.”